Plaid Cymru 'It is very important that MPs have a broad life experience'

Plaid Cymru's Ann Owen says the Conwy constituency is 'a marginal'. She adds: 'According to the Western Mail it was the seat most likely to change hands in Wales.'

This may be so - Labour's majority is just 1,596. But Ms Owen does not mention that her party actually came in fourth in 1997, with a mere 6.8 per cent of the vote. A swing to the Lib Dems is more likely to unseat the sitting MP.

Ms Owen is likely to make a noise about the health service locally. A professional officer for the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association, she trained as a nurse at London's Charing Cross Hospital in 1977, later working as a midwife and a health visitor as well.

She highlights the 'huge shortage of staff ' affecting the NHS in north-west Wales, with Llandudno Hospital having to 'close down' emergency admissions at one stage because of a lack of laboratory staff.

'It is very important that MPs have a broad life experience, ' she says, adding that she would like to bring her own experience as director of three small businesses to bear as well. 'It is important to bring that into the health field, ' she says.

Financial penalties are being lifted from high-profile standards including cancer and elective waiting times, so far without attracting much attention. How is this happening? And will it work, asks Rob Findlay